Norad Santa tracker: Follow Santa Claus live as he delivers Christmas gifts

Maybe Santa is looking for some R&R on his round-the-world journey, because NORAD is showing Santa’s sleigh nearing the Faroe Islands, a self-governing archipelago nation within the Kingdom of Denmark.

The islands have become a haven for travelers in recent years, described as one of Europe’s best kept secrets.

Don’t rest too long, St. Nick, there are still so many presents to be delivered!

Santa Claus is en route to Monrovia, Liberia, where he is set to deliver sackfuls of presents to the West African country’s 5.5million population.

Liberia was founded in 1822 as an outpost for freed American slaves returning to Africa from bondage in the Americas. It eventually became a commonwealth, and achieved independence in 1847.

The capital, Monrovia, is named after the fifth US president James Monroe, who supported the territory’s colonisation and helped fund its establishment.

Santa Claus is now en route to Barcelona, Spain. The Catalan capital is home to just under two million people – a lot of chimneys for Father Christmas to climb down.

Santa Claus just dropped off sackfuls of presents to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, in time for Christmas Day morning.

Sarajevo has a population of just under 300,000 and is surrounded by the majestic Dinaric Alps once used by the Bosnian Serbs to besiege the city during the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Santa Claus is now en route to Luanda, the capital of Angola. It is a port city on the west coast of Southern Africa, home to around 9million people.

Father Christmas has made it all the way to South Africa to deliver his presents after setting off from the North Pole earlier today.

He arrived on his sleigh in Johannesburg just now, a vibrant city of just six million. He is now en route to Cape Town to drop off more presents made by his crafty hard-working elves.

Santa Claus has landed in Bethlehem. The Palestinian town in the West Bank is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and where the Christian Church of the Nativity is.

The tradition began in 1955, when a child mistakenly rang a Colorado military command asking to speak to Father Christmas – after a local newspaper ran an advert by a department store containing a misprinted phone number.

As more calls came in that night, Commander Shoup assigned a duty officer to continue answering the phone, birthing a tradition that passed over to Norad when it was formed in 1958.

Every year since, the agency — which defends and monitors the skies over North America — has fielded children’s questions about the red-and-white-clad chimney intruder and his unrivaled delivery schedule.

Santa usually starts at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west.

So, historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that, he shoots up to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.

“Keep in mind, Santa’s route can be affected by weather, so it’s really unpredictable,” Norad states on its website.

“NORAD tracks Santa, but only Santa knows his route,” the military organization’s website states, “which means we cannot predict where and when he will arrive at your house. We do, however, know from history that it appears he arrives only when children are asleep! In most countries, it seems Santa arrives between 9:00 p.m. and midnight on December 24th. If children are still awake when Santa arrives, he moves on to other houses. He returns later, but only when the children are asleep!”